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Jury awards against Wyeth pharmaceutical for Prempro a combination of estrogen and progestin and the drug Premarin an estrogen replacement, for menopause women. An award was made by a Nevada jury of $134.5 million by a jury to 3 Nevada women who had breast cancer. The award ws later reduced to $35 million.

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John Havens who was cofounder with Vikram Pandit of Old Lane which Citigroup acquired to bring Vikram Pandit to Citigroup, has spent 20 years working side by side with Pandit going back to his Morgan Stanley days. Now Pandit has made him head of the investment banking and alternative investments group at Citigroup.

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Content Links 1. CANTARELL OIL FIELD LIVING UP TO WORST CASE SCENARIO OF INTERNAL PEMEX REPORT. That worst case scenario detailed in an internal oil company report suggested earlier in 2006 that the field's output could fall by about 75% by 2008. Output at Cantarell fell from 1.92 million barrels a day in January to 1.74 million barrels a day in June according to the Mexican Energy Ministry. (Mexico's total crude oil production was 3.3 million barrels a day and it exported 2 million barrels a day in 2005). 2. POLITICS AND HISTORY CONSTRAIN PEMEX EXPLORATION. The Mexican constitution bars Pemex from joining with foreign oil companies to conduct exploration in difficult environment like deep water exploration using the technology of privte oil companies. Mexico however depends on oil revenuesfor a third of its federal budget and declining oil output and future price declines could severely dent Mexico's finances. So there is a new awareness that this situation requires change and action to encourage collaboration and investment in exploration and new technologies. Felipe Calderon who won narrowly in the July Presidential election promised such changesto allow private oil companies to participate. Industry analysts believe that Mexico could find new fields in the deep waters of the Gulf of Mexico if it could use advanced exploration technology....

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U.S. auto sales including cars and light trucks reached 17.5 million in 2015, a 5.7% increase over 2014. Larger vehicles including pickup tucks and SUV's account for about half of all auto sales in 2015, with gas prices below $2.00 a gallon in Jan 2016 in most parts of the U.S. The average transaction price was up to $34,428, according to Kelley Blue Book. Auto incentives were up to $3063 per vehicle compared to $2809 ten years earlier, according to Kelley Blue Book. Analysts say automakers will reduce margins to subsidize zero interest loans in 2016 to increase sales. Lower sales are forecast after 2017 as the market will have caught up with much of the pent up demand by then. A plus for the automakers is the lower cost of steel and other material costs, and the better cost structures after bankruptcy, and renegotiated lower union pay scales. Additional plus is new management at U.S. automakers and at Toyota, and the technological advances this management is pushing, including fuel efficiency. Ride sharing, and other services developed by Google, are seen as disrupting the traditional car model to a limited extent. Countering this new development are millenials who are accounting for a quarter of Toyota sales in the last quarter of 2015, according to a Toyota executive....

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This piece in the Economist says the men involved in sexual harassment in Cologne identifed so far were Moroccans and Algerians, not Syrians. The police in Cologne are seen as failing to identify sexual attackers and apprehend them on the spot. Tensions will exist because of the different values in the Middle East, and as in America, the Economist says the refugees must be required to adopt the values and norms of the new country. Because most of the refugees are men, this could skew the men to women ratio in some places which welcome refugees, and for this reason the men should be allowed to bring their spouses. So far German chancellor Merkel has acted firmly, calling the sexual attacks "disgusting," passing laws that would make it possible to quickly deport those migrants and refugees who break the law in Germany. This is the right way to tackle the problem. In the long run the immigration will help countries such as Germany tackle the problem of aging of the labor force, yet in the short run stronger action is needed to prevent any abuses to the humanitarian welcome offered refugees. The problem of economically motivated migrants remains- Britain, Germany and France all agree that these migrants should go back to their home countries, as prime minister Cameron and chancellor Merkel have already affirmed....

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Anne- Marie Slaughter's new book Unfinished Business is reviewed by Laura Vanderkam. Ms. Slaughter says in her new book that part of the unfinished business for women in the workplace is to give women time for child care duties in a way that does not hurt their careers. Anne Marie makes the case on the grounds that this is a social bias. Yet there are many reasons beyond simple fairness, and the value of parental work. Women can contribute to society in different ways than men. For example reports show women are more interested in using technical skills in ways that will benefit developing countries. Women bring a different perspective than men. Women are also prominent in scientific fields. For this contribution to grow and enrich society it can be enlarged by giving women proper benefit for maternity leave, and preserving the ability to come back and contribute in the same way after the maternity leave period is over. Toshiba did this for a female engineer who had made significant contributions in the technical field. Doing this would also help in other ways. It could make it more attractive for women to have kids knowing it will not hurt their careers or the careers of their partners. This is needed in western societies with falling birthrates and declining number of young people to support larger numbers of older people....

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Turkey's relations with Turkmen in northern Syria, and opposition to the bombing of this part of Syria by Russian planes is cited as the reason for Turkey shooting down a Russian warplane in November 2015. Prime minister Erdogan stated this by saying: "we strongly condemn attacks focusing on areas inhabited by Bayibucak Turkmen- we have our relatives, our kin there." Following the incident Turkey provided media with footage showing 10 repeated warnings in the space of 5 minutes to the two Russian planes before Turkish F-16's shot down the Russian plane. The area where the plane was shot down is a small part of Turkey that juts into Syria. This part of Turkey is called the Hatay province, with Turkmen in Hatay forming a republic in 1938 breaking away from the French mandate over Syria set up following the first world war. The following year it joined Turkey. Parts of the Turkmen in Hatay are still in Syria and this is the region Russia began bombing 2 months ago, with Turkey opposing the bombing. Russian president Putin's claim that this is part of the bombing of Islamic State positions is refuted by Turkey's prime minister Davotoglu, who says "No one can legitimize attacks on Turkmens in Syria using the pretext of fighting the Islamic State." ...

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Eric Cantor is the senior Republican leader in the House of Representatives. He is a key figure in the negotiations with the Obama White House over the budget, deficit reduction, and raising the debt ceiling. Cantor and House Speaker Boehner are leading the negotiations on the Republican side. Cantor rejects any compromise on tax increases. He told reporters: "I think behind this notion of 'We want shared sacrifice' that they continue to say means 'We want to raise taxes,' and we don't accept that we raise taxes in an economy like this." Cantor is a lawyer and a former state legislator from a district that covers the Richmond, Virginia, suburbs. He was elected in 2000. Through his "Young Guns" program Cantor recruited many of the 87 new Republicans who were elected in 2010. It is this support from rank and file Congressman that has propelled Cantor into a leadership position for the deficit talks. Responding to critics that say a compromise is needed from both sides in the talks, Cantor says- "I don't think the White House understands how difficult it is for fiscal conservatives to say they are going to vote for a debt-ceiling increase." On June 23, Cantor pulled out of talks with the White House. In the current round of negotiations Boehner pulled back from "a grand bargain" which included tax increases, after consulting with Cantor....

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The view from the streets of Athens in November 2011, by Landon Thomas, shows Greece teetering on the brink. A situation it appears that is not fully grasped by EU officials who have throughout 2009, 2010 and 2011, acted always lagging far behind new developments and struggled to cope. Greek manufacturing will contract by 6% in 2011, on top of earlier declines. Auto sales have practically ceased and are at the lowest levels since 1993. The number of uninsured drivers increased by 500,000 in just the last 3 months, taking the total to 1.5 million. And small shops in Greece which depend on domestic demand are closing every day. A flood of money is leaving Greece. Since January 2010, Greece's banks have see a loss of $63.5 billion in deposits, 20% of Greece's annual economic output. Greece's bankers estimate that in just the last 2 months, September and October 2011, the numbers jumped to a figure ranging from $13.8 billion to $20.7 billion. The government has imposed value added taxes and a special real estate tax attached to Greek electricity bills, which is further cutting into consumer spending. And the public is blaming the politicians. Any setttlement by a unity government with the EU may be illusory, because the rapid deterioration of the economy would hasten a default. ...

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The risks to the Romney campaign in the U.S. Republican primaries after his work at Bain Capital comes under scrutiny. In the 1994 Senate election in Massachusetts Senator Edward Kennedy defeated Romney by focussing on the loss of jobs at companies acquired by Bain Capital. Kennedy's television advertising showed employees at Ampad who lost their jobs after a takeover by Bain Capital. A study by Stephen Davis of the University of Chicago, John Haltiwinger of the University of Maryland, Jos Lerner of Harvard, Ron Jarmin and John Miranda of the Census Bureau; looks at 3,200 buyouts between 1982 and 2005. It shows private equity firms shrinking the number of employees by about 6% more than other firms in the first 5 years. It also shows the firms largely offsetting the job losses through the firms that succeed and are expanded with new employees. This study does not look at a longer time frame. A recent examination of buyouts by Bain Capital over an eight year period by the Wall Street Journal gives a better picture because some of the firms went into bankruptcy during the 8-10 year time frame. Many of the jobs added are in the retail sector with lower wage levels- at Sports Authority, Staples, Toys R' Us, and Michael's for Bain Capital. ...

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Didi Kirsten Tatlow describes the experience of Angel Feng, a 26 year old Chinese graduate from a business school in France, fluent in English, French, Japanese and Chinese. She intervews with Chinese companies in 2010, who always ask a last question about whether she is planning to have a baby and refuse to believe her when she says she does not plan this for five years. Her first job is with a company promoting Chinese brands, which turns out to be bad as the company fires people immediately to slash costs, maintains long working hours and does not respect basic rights. One woman has a miscarraige and is ordered back to work in three days. The socialist era structures have been removed in China and this includes some of the protections for women, and the old ideas are returning in force. Angel decides to work for a semi-state organization run by the Ministry of Education. Women's rights are better protected in state sector companies. The pay of $625 a month is abit lower but it has benefits, including lunch at the canteen, housing allowance, and hours are 8.30 to 5 pm for 5 days a week. Her employer, China Education Association for International Exchange, covers childbirth with employees given at least 90 days maternity leave with full pay....

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Problems of finding a job in Spain, Portugal, Greece and Italy for younger people. A sense of a lost generation, as more people are fighting for fewer job opportunities. The situation is worsened by austerity measures and the deepening economic crisis in these countries. Many young people have moved in with their parents, and others are emigrating to northern European countries. A former Italian prime minister, Giuliano Amato, tells the Italian newspaper Corriere della Serra, that youth protests against university reform in Italy are also about the general lack of opportunities- "against the general situation in which the older generations have eaten the future of the younger ones." Here the NYT tells the story of Francesca Esposito, 29, the daughter of a fireman and a school teacher, the first generation of her family to attend college. She has an Italian law degree and a master's from Germany, and has fluency in five languages. She worked for some time as an unpaid trainee at Italy's social security adminsitration, till she quit. She has found it extremely difficult to find a paying job. Coral Gomez, 33, of Madrid, who has a PhD. in humanities lives with her parents because no steady jobs can be found. Coral earns 600 euros as a children's drama teacher. She says she will be going to Costa Rica to teach at a university....

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Pakistan has moved ahead in developing its nuclear arsenal. The production of uranium and plutonium for bombs and developing new weapons to deliver them has actually been accelerated during the recent period of unrest in Pakistan. Four years ago Pakistan had an estimated 30 to 60 weapons. Hans Kristensen, is the director of the nuclear information project at the Federation of American Scientists and author of the annual global nuclear weapons inventory published by the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists. Kristensen says it is not unreasonable to say that Pakistan has produced at least 100 weapons. Simon Gregory, Director of the Pakistan Security Research Unit at Britain's University of Bradford, puts the number at between 100 and 110. India is estimated to have 60 to 100 nuclear weapons. A 2008 agreement that lets India purchase nuclear fuel for civilian purposes was a motivation for accelerating nuclear weapons development in Pakistan. In December 2008, Peter Lavoie, the US intelligence officer for South Asia, told NATO officials that despite impending economic catastrophe, Pakistan is producing nuclear weapons at a faster rate than any other country in the world," according to classified State Department cables released late last year by the Intenet site WikiLeaks. This leak angered the Pakistan army chief Gen. Kayani who said "the real aim of US war strategy is to denuclearize Pakistan."...

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A WSJ interview with Jose Socrates, the prime minister of Portugal. Socrates says he supports more European integration in economic matters. The context for this is the meeting of 26 leaders of European nations in Brussels on February 4, 2011. Germany is pushing for major changes in the way the European Union works so that economic integration is coupled with the political integration process. This is now thought to be the only way to make the EU work, and both Germany and France are pushing for this. This is also the price of German financial support to countries like Ireland, Greece, Portugal and Spain. In an earlier interview with WSJ, Spain's finance minister, Elena Salgado, offered her support to the German plan. Aspects of the economic coordination Socrates supports are pushing up the standard retirement age to 65, which Portugal has done. He is less supportive of de-linking wages to inflation. There he pointed to the 5% public sector pay cut to go into effect this year. Socrates says the challenge for Portugal is "not to be more competitive with lower salaries." He also provided statistics that show that " this is a modern country." Statistics on electronic government tenders, the ratio of computers to children, the percentage of energy from renewable sources. And said people are talking who have preconceived ideas and don't know anything about Portugal. ...

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The Guangzhou to Wuhan train high speed line covers the 664 mile trip in 3 hours. 42 such high speed rail lines are set to open by 2012. These trains run at 215 miles per hour. Original plans were to build these lines by 2020 but the global economic crisis led to state planners moving the date up to 2012 and allocating $100 billion for this purpose. Moving passenger traffic to high speed rail lines also frees up the existing lines for more freight. Plans are to build an additional 3000 miles of track for passenger and fast freight trains at 155 miles per hour. Practically every seat on the Guangzhou- Wuhan 14 car train was full on a typical day last week, filled with migrant workers going home. What makes building these lines affordable is construction workers who earn less than $100 a month, a national savings rate of 40%, and rising tax revenues.This particular line cost $17 billion to build because of the many tunnels needed for the line. The three hour train actually makes the journey faster than the 2 hour flight to Wuhan from Guangzhou because of faster check-in times. Train stations are built in industrial districts away from the city, in the case of Guangzhou, a 40 minute bus ride from the city....

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Of the 10 parties expected to win seats in the Greek parliamentary elections, 7 oppose the IMF program for Greece and 2 call for exit from the euro. A Pasok-New Democracy coalition government is by no means certain. Pasok and New Democracy largely supported the IMF program before the elections. Greece has to make 3 billion euros of spending cuts right after the elections and 12 billion euros in 2013-2014 under the IMF program. Poor showing by Pasok and New Democracy could lead to calls for changes to the IMF program. About 73% of Greece's debt is now in official hands- 23% with the European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF), 21% bilateral government loans, 21% ECB, 8% IMF. Only 27% is now in the hands of private investors after the debt restructuring. The election of Socialist candidate Hollande in France who has declared the handling of Greece by the EU deplorable and a failure of governance not only in Greece but in Europe, would also add support to calls for changes in the IMF program to include growth measures. Hollande predicts a large public contribution by governments, the EFSF and the ECB, the IMF, to match the 70% contribution of private investors. The IMF appears to have anticipated this by recently enlarging its rescue fund....

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Francois Hollande, Socialist candidate for president in France, has led the Socialist party for many years. He started his career as a junior politician in the Mitterand government, and regards Mitterand his mentor. Another mentor is Jacques Delours, who was president of the European Commission. He has many years of training, and has persevered thorughout with a certain sense of humility in the midst of colleagues and politicians in France with larger egos. That inner strength and courage has emerged in the recent campaign appearances and the final debate with Sarkozy in April 2012. He has shown this in the recent campaign by not overstating expectations as he looks at the long term, and at the same time not understating when courage demanded a stronger statement. He has taken timely and effective positions in the current debate of austerity vs growth, or growth coupled with restraint in fiscal spending vs austerity, that is raging in Europe. He was quick to call the situation in Greece, a failure of governance in Europe, as well as a failure of governance in Greece. With the new voices of Premier Monti in Italy and ECB president Draghi from Italy, pushing for growth coupled with fiscal responsibility, a president Hollande in France, would add another voice to European aspirations for growth in the debate with Angela Merkel's Christian Democrats in Germany. ...

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Greek tax evasion is estimated by three economists who studied data from Greek banks at about $11 billion based on a 40% tax rate, a third of the country's annual deficit for 2009. Unreported income is estimated at $28 billion. Doctors, dentists, lawyers, architects, engineers are the biggest groups underreporting income. Greece's parliament took up a bill in 2010 but the bill failed because of oposition from these groups. It remains to be seen if the Samaras government with support of the IMF-EC can take action similiar to that taken by the Monti government in Italy to go after tax evaders. By cutting the minimum wage and incomes of lower income groups disproportionately compared to cracking down on tax evasion and protecting incomes of higher income groups the economic plan for Greece proposed by the IMF-EC and the Greek government becomes unworkable and threatens the social fabric. By not raising this issue Germany's media and government have appeared callous in their pursuit of austerity measures as working class Greeks protested in Athens in 2011-2012, even though some of the issues raised by the Germans are legitimate. France and Italy are imposing a wealth tax to cut the deficit but this is not taking place in Greece. Global financial media has also not reported adequately on these aspects of the problem in Greece and Italy....

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Australian anthropologist Genevieve Bell heads a group of 75 people at Intel Labs working to figure out all the ways technology affects people and society. Here she talks to NYT's Quentin Hardy. She says there are three areas in which technology is changing the way we live, and act, and our relationship to society. Like electrification the digital revolution is changing the concept of time, introducing new ideas about availability and response time. Here she points out the need to leave some parts of the day for disconnectedness, to preserve quiet time in our lives for recharging and getting a sense of who and where we are. Then there is the idea of space, of imaginary space when connecting to people in distant places, and physical space such as at airports and public places with wifi and internet to connect. After space and time come social relationships, about relating to one's fellow human beings. With this comes ideas of privacy, security and risk. With changes in how we view time, space and social relationships, comes anxiety. Social movements are likely to develop around ideas of government and governance, on issues such as what it means to be unequal and denied economic opportunity, when the digital revolution itself is opening up new visions of what is possible, just as electrification did at the turn of the twentieth century....

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Saudis unilaterally cut prices of crude oil without consultation with other members of OPEC at the beginning of Oct. 2014. Saudi oil minister Ali al-Naimi says there is not much point in talking to other members of OPEC as everyone does as they please. The old cooperation between Gulf states Qatar, U.A.E., Kuwait and Saudi Arabia is breaking down with each country backing different rebel factions against the Assad regime in Syria-Iraq. Ali al-Naimi who normally comes in ahead of the OPEC meetings in Vienna, which meet twice a year, arrived this time at the last minute. He said meetings should be conducted only once a year and consulting can be done remotely. The old style when he guided discussion at OPEC meetings is gone. OPEC now produces about a third of the world's oil, has large spare capacity of 3.8 million barrels a day in 2014 or 4% of global oil supply in a crisis, according to IEA. Yet it faces pressures from the increasing shale production in North America and the decline in demand from Asia. Brent crude is at about $92 in October 2014. OPEC production in August 2014 was split as follows- Saudis 9.6, Iraq 3.0, Iran 3.0, U.A.E. 2.9. Kuwait 2.9, Venezuela 2.3, Qatar 0.7, Libya 0.5, Algeria 1.2, Nigeria 1.8, Angola 1.7 (millions of barrels a day, source: OPEC)...

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U.S. Federal Reserve chairwoman Janet Yellen's speech at the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston conference on inequality was remarkable in the clear focus on the increase in inequality of the last three decades. Yellen calls it "the most sustained rise in inequality since the nineteenth century." Yellen also described the stark inequality between the lower half of households and those at the top- "The lower half of households by wealth held just 3 percent of wealth in 1989 and only 1 percent in 2013. To put that in perspective... the average net worth of the lower half of the distribution, representing 62 million households, was $11,000 in 2013. About one fourth of these families reported zero wealth or negative net worth, and a significant fraction of those said they were "underwater" on their home mortgages, owing more than the value of the home." Without saying this explicitly Yellen has accepted the Fed's own role in this situation under Greenspan and Bernanke. Under Bernanke Yellen was vicechairwoman. Yellen participated in many of the decisions of the Fed that kept interest rates low- hurting savers and those who could not take the risks of a volatile stock market. Yet Yellen has shown courage in stating the problem with all the facts she could muster, and making clear that Fed sees the long term unemployed as a critical driver for Fed policy....

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Mikhail Gorbachev calls the Russian parliament Speaker Sergey Naryshkin's idea of looking into the reunification of Germany as an annexation of East Germany, a form of "nonsense." This was originally stated by a Communist member of the Russian parliament Nikolay Ivanov, who sees this as "a retaliatory step" to Chancellor Merkel's criticism of the annexation of Crimea. Merkel said at the Davos forum- "The annexation of Crimea is a violation of something that has made up our peaceful coexistence, namely the protection of borders and territorial integrity." Merkel and Putin now have profound differences. Putin sees the world of Russia in terms of its relations with border states such as Ukraine, the Baltics and Poland in terms of the Soviet Union and Czarist Russia's influence in Eastern Europe, as a part of Russia's legitimate interests. Merkel and Germans see it differently, with the collapse of the Prussian military state and Czarist Russia, and the collapse of Nazis and the Soviet Union, in succession, Germany is fully committed to a new view of relations between states in Europe based on democratic processes, respecting the views of people in Kiev to decide their own future. This reflects a new mood in Europe with increased funding for Deutsche Welle, Germany's broadcasting service to the world, in response to increased broadcasting by Russia Today, Russia's news service....

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Pulliam and Demos look at the murky world of pre IPO trading of shares by venture capital companies and by employees of the pre-IPO companies in the secondary market. Federal and state laws permit pre-IPO trading for unregistered securities. The SEC has not issued more than a couple of enforcement actions for the trading of pre-IPO shares from startup companies. Wealth is now created before an IPO is done. During the 2000 tech boom most of the surge in price happened after the IPO- Amazon's IPO giving the company a valuation of $400 million based on IPO price then, compared to $171 billion in 2015, and Facebook worth $104 billion at the IPO price in 2012, and twice that in 2015. 78 privately held companies are worth over $1 billion in 2015, with combined valuation of $310 billion. The surge in prices of pre-IPO shares comes from the huge demand from investors, who are willing to accept that not much financial information will be disclosed by the startup companies, in the hope of quickly earning a large profit. The estimates of pre-IPO trading for the shares is in the range of $10- $30 billion in shares traded in 2014. This is what the WSJ's Puliam and Demos learned from extensive interviews with traders, investmetn bankers, hedge fund managers, venture capital executives, lawyers and company officials....

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Ami Ayalon, a former director of Israel's Security Agency (Shin Bet), proposes that Netanyahu take the small tangible steps in the direction of a two state solution for Palestine. He says this would lay the groundwork for reduction in tensions in the Middle East by aligning Saudi Arabia and other Sunni States, Turkey, Israel and the U.S., towards a lasting settlement. Ayalon refers to two changes in the Middle East that others have observed- the street is exercizing major influence on events in the Middle East and this presents an opportunity to defuse a lasting irritant in the form of treatment of Palestinians. The Iranian Shiite influence in Iran and Iraq provides Sunni and other Muslim states an incentive for serious and lasting settlement of the differences with Israel. These are two influences that present opportunities to move forward, says Ayalon. Adding that if Netanyahu fails to grasp this and make serious moves in negotiations, Israelis should vote him out of office. The move he is calling for is for Israel to declare it has no sovereignty claims over areas east of the security fence built in the West Bank. A voluntary evacuation and compensation would take place and settlers who stay would have some form of assured status under the agreement. The Israel Defense Force would remain in the area till a firm agreement with guarantees is put in place....

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The humble roots of Jorge Bergoglio, born of Italian immigrants to Buenos Aires, Argentina. He studied theology in Germany before becoming a Jesuit priest in 1969. Bergoglio was made bishop in 1992, archbishop of Buenos Aires in 1998, and cardinal by Pope John Paul in 2001. Bergoglio has spent much of his time working with the poor and improving education and has avoided the titles and trappings of the position. He lived in an apartment near the cathedral in the Plaza de Mayo in Buenos Aires, and cooked his own meals as archbishop. He loves Argentine tango music and is a soccer fan of the San Lorenzo Club, which was founded by Father Lorenzo, a priest who assisted at-risk kids. The sense of observers is of a person of overwhelming authenticity. Many in the Catholic Church worldwide feel this was a good choice for Pope by the cardinals because this is likely to bring the church closer to the people in Latin America, Europe and other parts of the world, and infuse the Church with new energy for renewal. Evangelical churches have spread in Latin America, particularly in Brazil, and church pews are seeing smaller numbers of people in Europe. Bergoglio, now Pope Francis, is seen as the right choice to reverse this trend and bring a regeneration of Catholicism at a difficult time. ...